FSSAI proposes amendments to regulation relating to Cotton Seed Oil

FSSAI proposes amendments to regulation relating to Cotton Seed Oil

In a recent notification dated 19 January 2016 the FSSAI has proposed some amendments to the regulations dealing with Cotton Seed Oil. The food regulator has invited suggestions, objections and comments from WTO-SPS Member Countries on the proposed amendments within a period of 60 dates from the issue of the notification. This proposed draft has been named as Food safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Amendment Regulations, 2016.

The amendments have been made in the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011 in the regulation that deals with Fats, Oils and Fat Emulsions. In this regulation the change has been made to the standards of iodine value in cotton seed oil. In the earlier regulation it read as “Iodine value 98 to 112” however, now it has been amended to “Iodine value 98 to 123.”

The second amendment has been made to Blended edible vegetable oil. This type of oil is an admixture of any two edible vegetable oils where the proportion by weight of any edible vegetable oil used in the admixture is not less than 20 per cent.

In the regulation, blended edible oil in the section ‘Nature of Oil’ for the standards related to Unsaponifiable matter, percent by weight a new standard has been added. The new amendment is related to Blended with physically refined rice bran oil. The amendment says that when unsaponifiable matter is blended with physically refined rice bran oil, it will not be more than 4.0 percent by weight; provided that oryzanol content is a minimum of 0.20% (by weight) with rice bran oil at 20% level and with an increment of 0.05% with every 5% rise in rice bran oil content in the blend.